Korea-based firm is lone bidder for 2025 automated poll system

A firm based in South Korea, Miru Systems Company Limited, is the lone bidder to supply the country's automated election system (AES) for the 2025 national and local elections.

This was disclosed at the Commission on Elections Special Bids and Awards Committee’s (SBAC) opening of bids for the lease of Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) on Thursday. 

During the pre-bid conference, Miru, Pivot International, and Smartmatic Philippines purchased the bidding documents.

However, Pivot did not push through with their bid while Smartmaric was recently disqualified by Comelec en banc to participate in all of its procurements.

During the opening of bids, it was disclosed that Smartmatic made a last-ditch attempt to submit their offer for the procurement but the SBAC rejected it due to the earlier decision of the Comelec en banc. 

In an interview with Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco, he explained that while Miru is the lone bidder for the contract, it is not yet assured that they will win the bid. 

Should Miru fail to meet the qualifications and the contract requirements, Laudiangco said the SBAC would declare a “failure of bidding.” 

The P18.827 contract would include the vote counting machines, ballots, and other paraphernalia needed for the voting and canvassing of votes in 2025.

The amount for the contract will be sourced from the 2024 national budget. —VAL, GMA Integrated News